The Faculty of Education at Queen’s University recently launched a new partnership with Norway’s Nord University, with a focus on better preparing the teachers of the future.

Concurrent education students, faculty members, Dean Rebecca Luce-Kapler, and Paul Valle, Superintendent of Schools with the York Region District School Board, met with counterparts from Nord University on Jan. 13-14 to discuss educational leadership.

This collaboration is part of the Canada-Norway Pedagogy Partnership for Innovation and Inclusion in Education (CANOPY), a four-year partnership funded by the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (DIKU)’s NOTED program.

This partnership aims to address, from a holistic and international perspective, the most pressing issues currently facing the education sector to better prepare the next generation of teachers. Connecting educational research, classroom experience, student mobility, and institutional management, CANOPY will develop global competencies in pedagogy, research, and training through international collaboration.

Over the course of the two days, each member presented a half-hour session to learn about the similarities and differences between education in Norway and Canada.

“Having education students, faculty members, people who work in school boards and senior administrators of the Faculty of Education from two different countries be part of the same group created a dynamic environment full of exciting possibilities for future collaborations and wonderful ideas that each of us will be taking away with us in our practice,” says Dr. Luce-Kapler.

The group will meet again in Norway in May to further establish valuable relationships and research possibilities.

Innovation and inclusion are the guiding principals of CANOPY, and the initiatives of each year of the project will focus on a different priority area:
2020: Educational Leadership
2021: Digital Innovation and Educational Technology
2022: Indigenous Studies, Diversity, and Inclusion
2023: Exceptional Learners

To find out more about this exciting new partnership, please visit the CANOPY website.